A Message From the Sea

by Charles Dickens

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Captain Jorgan, up and out betimes, had put the whole village of Lanrean
under an amicable cross-examination, and was returning to the King
Arthur's Arms to breakfast, none the wiser for his trouble, when he
beheld the young fisherman advancing to meet him, accompanied by a
stranger. A glance at this stranger assured the captain that he could be
no other than the Seafaring Man; and the captain was about to hail him as
a fellow-craftsman, when the two stood still and silent before the
captain, and the captain stood still, silent, and wondering before them.

"Why, what's this?" cried the captain, when at last he broke the silence.
"You two are alike. You two are much alike. What's this?"

Not a word was answered on the other side, until after the seafaring
brother had got hold of the captain's right hand, and the fisherman
brother had got hold of the captain's left hand; and if ever the captain
had had his fill of hand-shaking, from his birth to that hour, he had it
then. And presently up and spoke the two brothers, one at a time, two at
a time, two dozen at a time for the bewilderment into which they plunged
the captain, until he gradually had Hugh Raybrock's deliverance made
clear to him, and also unravelled the fact that the person referred to in
the half-obliterated paper was Tregarthen himself.

"Formerly, dear Captain Jorgan," said Alfred, "of Lanrean, you recollect?
Kitty and her father came to live at Steepways after Hugh shipped on his
last voyage."

"Ay, ay!" cried the captain, fetching a breath. "_Now_ you have me in
tow. Then your brother here don't know his sister-in-law that is to be
so much as by name?"

"Never saw her; never heard of her!"

"Ay, ay, ay!" cried the captain. "Why then we every one go back
together--paper, writer, and all--and take Tregarthen into the secret we
kept from him?"

"Surely," said Alfred, "we can't help it now. We must go through with
our duty."

"Not a doubt," returned the captain. "Give me an arm apiece, and let us
set this ship-shape."

So walking up and down in the shrill wind on the wild moor, while the
neglected breakfast cooled within, the captain and the brothers settled
their course of action.

It was that they should all proceed by the quickest means they could
secure to Barnstaple, and there look over the father's books and papers
in the lawyer's keeping; as Hugh had proposed to himself to do if ever he
reached home. That, enlightened or unenlightened, they should then
return to Steepways and go straight to Mr. Tregarthen, and tell him all
they knew, and see what came of it, and act accordingly. Lastly, that
when they got there they should enter the village with all precautions
against Hugh's being recognised by any chance; and that to the captain
should be consigned the task of preparing his wife and mother for his
restoration to this life.

"For you see," quoth Captain Jorgan, touching the last head, "it requires
caution any way, great joys being as dangerous as great griefs, if not
more dangerous, as being more uncommon (and therefore less provided
against) in this round world of ours. And besides, I should like to free
my name with the ladies, and take you home again at your brightest and
luckiest; so don't let's throw away a chance of success."

The captain was highly lauded by the brothers for his kind interest and
foresight.